Happy Passover/Easter from South Park!
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been ones to shy away from examining the absurdities of powerful institutions–religion being one that offers much fodder for inspired tomfoolery. South Park episodes that take a closer look at dogma typically deliver the goods in some capacity–be it a witty insight or riotous commentary–and last episode “Jewpacabra” was no exception thanks mainly to Cartman’s extended dream sequence that puts the destruction of Egypt in Exodus into an appropriately brutal light. Take a look after the jump.
The dichotomy of this religious season is certainly ripe for satire. For Jewish people, Passover is the commemoration of their ancestors’ collective manumission, brought about through mass chaos by an angry God against the slave-owning Egyptians (who, in this sequence, are hilariously sympathetic and view the situation much more reasonably than they’re commonly given credit for), while Easter is the Christian holiday celebrating Jesus’ resurrection with the help of brash commercialism and other fun and safe stuff like tasty candies, cute bunnies, and egg hunts (though how fun and safe egg hunts are is called into question). But, as duly noted throughout, at the core of these different observances is the split between the fundamental concepts of the angry God in Exodus and the loving God in the New Testament–diametrically opposing divine notions that Cartman is just hallucinogenic enough to enliven. And in keeping with South Park‘s own dogma, this dream sequence holds nothing back and we are thankful for it.